Not a factory fit, but when I enlarged mine and put on a new door, I installed it opening downward. Absolutely love it. Ground clearance is not an issue at all, and the convenience is WAY better than the other way around. I would highly recommend it. I bet that Reace would do it if asked.

Has anyone had the access hatch(es) installed upside down (hinge at the bottom) during the build?

If so, how's it working out?

Both of the exterior access hatches on our 2008 5.0 have the hinge on the bottom and the lock at the top. I never thought anything of it and since we bought it used we never had any option. Seem to work fine...the hatch cover doesn't fall down on your arm that way. Is there some problem with them being installed this way?

The only two things I've read, is it's possible to spring the hinge and if the hinge isn't SS, it can rust.

If it's a really good thing, I'm surprised they're not all installed this way. But looking at pics on the Escape Trailer Industries web page... it looks like they're typically installed hinge at the top. Hummmmm.

Our Chalet LTW had the hatches installed hinge down. While it avoided having to use the clip, we found that in a lot of our wet camping (uh, that's where we actually camp in the rain in Washington not with hookups) we were constantly having to wipe it down because of water landing on or inside. We much prefer having the hatch cover catch any wetness on the outside as we'll as protect the opening. We also like having the ability to have it unlocked but not be wide open. Just our take...

Both of the exterior access hatches on our 2008 5.0 have the hinge on the bottom and the lock at the top. I never thought anything of it and since we bought it used we never had any option. Seem to work fine...the hatch cover doesn't fall down on your arm that way. Is there some problem with them being installed this way?

I should add that the front exterior hatch (for the propane tanks) has the hinge on top along with the clip to hold it open. Our side hatches are fairly small so we don't keep a lot of things there...mostly stuff we need when setting up and breaking camp. Things we might have carried in the truck bed. If the hatches were larger and we stowed more 'inside' stuff in there perhaps it would be more of an issue for us.